A Necessary Message

You can either read this blog or listen to to file here or on the Realm Maintenance podcast feed.

The following you are about to read is not what is typically found here.

I am posting this on the Realm Maintenance feed and on realm-maintenance.com in an attempt to provide as much exposure and disclosure as possible.

The content you are about to read contains discussion of mature themes though it contains no explicit language. Discretion is advised.

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My name is Brian Schwartz. Over my time as a participant in World of Warcraft and media from the community grown from it, I’ve also gone by my main character name of Rho, and also by Brian Black.

In this age of the internet, there’s little difficulty in having a second life as it were. Who people are when they’re unconnected from their computers can be quite different from who they are when chatting online, raiding bosses in games, or giving podcasts.

There are many who appreciate this ability to live this alternate life, to be free from the worry and stress that comes with the daily challenges of everyday life off the computers.

For the longest time, I was one of those people. As of today, that will no longer be a luxury to me.

What I am about to give you is full disclosure regarding who I am when I’m not online. That means I’m going to give you as much of the story behind this as I possibly can, because there are others out there who only know portions of the story. Others whose perception and vision of who I am may be very different from what I consider to be reality.

This does not come easy for me to talk about, but given the situation I’ve decided I must be proactive about this and be the first to communicate it. This communication is going to change my life forever, and more than likely not for the best, but it still must be done. It is my hope that when I’m done here, you’ll understand the strength it took me to no longer hide from the truths I am about to talk about.

The reason this has all come up, is because a person who goes by Miranda Moore online has in the past week made multiple attempts to bring this information forward herself. For the record, I do not know who Miranda Moore is. In all likelihood it’s probably an alias. I only know based off her IP that she lives in the local area of where I reside.

This past week Miranda decided to inform others that I am a registered sex offender. She attempted to do this by posting comments to my WordPress blog articles and YouTube videos. These comments were removed by myself shortly after they were posted.

That said, I will not deny the truth of the information.

It is true that I am required to register with the local authorities as a sex offender.

Trust me when I tell you that I understand that term casts a dark shadow over who I am. This probably shocked and surprised every one of you reading this. When people hear the words “sex offender” it’s natural to think of the worst possible scenario about the person.

This information is on public record, and of course you have the right to look at it yourself if you wish. There are a number of sites which contain listings of such offenders, though those listings are not always thorough. They don’t always provide all the details or circumstances as to why someone is registered. Because of this, it’s natural for someone reading that to assume the worst of the offender. I entirely understand this.

That said, I am not a predator, nor do I have any wishes or impulses to be one.

I was required to register as a sex offender due to pleading No Contest to the misdemeanor charge of Harassing or Abusing a Minor a little over seventeen years ago in Southern California. In order for you to understand why I specifically pled No Contest, and to better explain just what I was accused of, it’s important that I tell you the whole story behind this.

I hope it sheds light on information not readily available about my case when doing a quick search for it.

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Seventeen years ago, I was living on my own in Southern California in a low-rent apartment building. I was an assistant manager at a local comic book shop at the time and I was able to make ends meet while also being able to save some here and there.

A neighbor of mine in her late twenties had a seven-year old daughter and was struggling to pay for rent, bills, and food with the resources available to her. At the time I had considered her a friend, and I helped her financially on a routine basis. I had seen difficult times in my past where others helped me, and as far as I was concerned, this was simply one way I could help return that kind of behavior to someone else in need.

Months later due to poor business I had my hours reduced at work. This of course meant that I had less money to work with, and I simply was unable to help this neighbor any further. Unfortunately the neighbor’s financial situation had not improved, and she became dependant on the assistance I gave her.

About three weeks after I had stopped giving her assistance, she had gone to the authorities with her daughter and claimed that I had asked her daughter to remove her clothes when she was in my apartment room while the mother was asleep. Her story was that I had offered to give the child some money for helping me clean my apartment, and that during that time I had verbally asked her to remove her clothing.

To be clear here, the mother did not say that I touched her daughter in any way, shape, or form. She claimed that her daughter left my room when being asked, ran to her and told her the story, and the mother then went to the police.

As a result, I was arrested on suspicion of harassing/abusing a minor, which at the time is normally considered a 1st degree misdemeanor or a felony of a low degree.

While I was accused of the actions, I did not commit them. However, that would not stop me from eventually entering in a plea of No Contest.

With my finances being tight at the time, I couldn’t afford an attorney and had a public defender appointed to me. This public defender said that if I was to plea Not Guilty, the case would go to a trial by jury to determine my guilt. It was a situation where it was simply my word against the word of the mother and the child. There was no physical evidence to help either side in the case.

Were the case to go to a jury trial and I be found Guilty, the charge would have been considered a felony sex offense, which has serious repercussions as I’m sure many of you are aware. The public defender suggested I enter into a plea bargain of No Contest. By giving a plea of No Contest the charge would be reduced to a first degree misdemeanor. At that time in California those who were charged with misdemeanor sex offenses had to register once a year, though their names were not put on public record.

The public defender said that while I might have a chance in a jury trial to be found Not Guilty, in his experience cases like mine had a more likely chance to end up in a Guilty plea. I believed that. California had a number of high-profile cases of child abuse, and citizens in the area were very sensitive about issues like that. Even though people are instructed by the Court to render a verdict based on the facts presented, it would still be a challenge to win the case given the circumstances.

Out of fear and concern for my future, and due to the fact that quite simply I was a much younger and inexperienced person in these days, I decided to take the plea bargain.

That is how I initially became required to register in the State of California as a sex offender, and I renewed my registration every year as required by law up until the time I moved to Ohio in 2001.

I moved to Ohio because my financial situation had become beyond desperate. At that point I was jobless, out of money, and no longer had a place to call home. For about one week I was actually homeless, and it was a sobering experience trying to survive on the streets of suburban Los Angeles.

I remained in contact with a few friends online via the public library, and a friend offered me a roof over my head and an opportunity to try to start over with my life in Ohio. They provided money for a bus ticket, and with seemingly nowhere else to go I took that opportunity.

Now, when I moved to Ohio I made a couple of mistakes which complicated matters for me years later. Due to both my ignorance of Ohio law and my assumption that I didn’t have to register for a sex offender in another state given the misdemeanor nature of the offense, I did not register in the State of Ohio for a period of approximately 10 years. When this information was learned and disclosed to authorities, I was arrested for failing to register in Ohio about 3 years ago.

This charge could end up as a felony or misdemeanor, and once again I pled No Contest as part of a plea bargain. Because the initial offense was a misdemeanor, and due to the fact that I had absolutely no criminal history in my life outside of the initial offense and this one, the failure to register was also lowered to a misdemeanor.

In the state of Ohio, misdemeanor sex offenders are required to register every three months with their local sheriff’s office, and I have done so with due diligence. This is important to know, because when you look at my information on some of the non-government databases, it mentions in my history that I failed to register in Ohio, which is true. But the information does not tell one looking at it that I in fact have been registering in Ohio every few months since 2011.

———————

That is the full disclosure of my criminal history, and why I am listed and labeled as a sex offender on those databases. California law requires that sex offenders register for life, and Ohio law states that when a sex offender from another state moved to Ohio, they must remain registered as an offender for whatever duration they were instructed to by the state they came from.

What that means, is basically for the rest of my life I will have this label, and I will update my registration as required to by the law.

That is the side of Brian Schwartz that until today, thousands of you were unaware of. Miranda Moore’s attempts to shed light on that information revealed a cold hard truth to me. While it is possible to have a degree of anonymity on the Internet, when you surrender that right by allowing your face to be connected with a name, you can not remain separate from your life beyond the internet.

Rather than have Miranda be the one to let this information come out, I decided that it was best that I simply come forward myself.

Don’t get me wrong, I am fully aware of the repercussions here. There are many of you listening or reading right now that may very well be upset by this information. You may feel like I have betrayed a level of trust by not being forthcoming about this facet of my life with you previously.

I can not tell you how to react to what you have learned today.

I can not tell you to simply carry on and pretend like nothing happened.

By telling you all of this today, it’s quite possible that I have destroyed any possibility of remaining a member of this community. Even though I have provided full disclosure here and given you the facts of my case and the seventeen years following it, that doesn’t mean that some of you will consider me corrupt or evil or whatever word you want to use because you now have the words “sex offender” associated with who I am.

There are thousands upon thousands of sex offenders in the world. Countless numbers of them have participate in disgusting and heinous acts that have earned the distrust and scorn of those who know of them.

Because of the actions committed by the worst and most publicized offenders, those who have committed lesser offenses often receive the same discrimination, harassment, and resentment that comes as a result of the worst acts upon humanity committed by the greater offenders. Further still, there are many offenders who have that label branded upon their lives due to being in situations similar to the what I found myself in seventeen years ago.

I can’t change how society as a whole feels about those words “sex offender.”

I honestly don’t expect to necessarily change your view or outlook on it either.

The fact of the matter is, this information was going to be revealed sooner or later. Miranda Moore’s attempts this week made that abundantly clear. There was no scenario here from which things could have gone on unchanged, and it was only a matter of time before this information came out. It actually surprised me that Miranda Moore did not take her campaign to Twitter.

But that’s neither here or there. You now know the truth.

If you feel that I have betrayed a trust, I deeply apologize. These ghosts from my pasts haunt me every day of my life, and as much as I have done my best to move on from it, I can never be rid of my past, not even on the internet.

Everything I have done on Realm Maintenance has been done out of a love for the medium of podcasting, and a love for the amazing community that has grown from World of Warcraft and other Blizzard titles over the past couple of decades. I never did this with the intent to become famous. In fact, from day one I had some degree of concern about becoming too well-known in the community because of a scenario in which my past would be exposed.

But that scenario has now happened, on my terms.

I am fully aware of what may happen in the days to come. Friends I have known for years may disassociate themselves from me. Communities I have been a part of will see me in a different life. Trolls will appear, and I will likely be harassed by those that are still able to retain the precious anonymity that the internet affords them.

As of right now, I remain committed to being a part of the podcasts that I am currently on, though I will of course resign my role from those shows without hesitation should the hosts of those shows no longer want me associated with them.

As of this moment I continue to be a part of the planning for World of Podcasts. However, it is possible and perhaps probable that I will have to remove myself from direct involvement from the event should the committee deem it the most appropriate course of action.

The last thing I want to do is cause damage to the organizations I have associated with due to my past. The reality however is that this information was bound to be revealed in the near future, and I had to be proactive in my disclosure.

I will still likely attend Blizzcon, though it will certainly be a different experience for me than I originally anticipated. A lot of that depends on what takes place over the next couple of weeks.

I am not going to ask for your support right now. I understand the difficulty that comes with deciding to support me in the wake of this information. If you do choose to remain a listener, an associate, or a friend, then of course you have my eternal gratitude. But I do not nor can I expect it.

Will Realm Maintenance go on? I can’t give you an answer for that just yet. It’s my intent to continue with it, but only if it’s something that the community continues to see as a benefit. Episode 112 will likely still happen. There is a possibility it may end up being the final episode, I don’t know at present. Rest assured that I won’t just fade away and that there when I decide it’s time to close the book on Realm Maintenance, it will be made clear.

I’m not even sure if “Rho” will be able to exist any longer. I just don’t know. There’s a possibility I may need to just start over in my internet life, if that’s even possible… and to be honest that’s something I’m really hoping doesn’t become necessary, but that possibility can’t be ignored. Again, if I do retire from this community… if I do bring an end to Rho as it were… I won’t just simply vanish. You can expect at the very least one more communication from me in the future.

I want to thank all of you for taking the time today to read these words. This is without a doubt one of the most difficult things I have ever done in my life. While I feel I am doing the right thing by volunteering this information and being forthcoming, giving full disclosure, that doesn’t change the fact that I am very concerned about my future and the connections I have made to so many of you. While I am hopeful that many of you will be able to accept what you’ve learned, I can’t say I’m overly optimistic about the days to come.

You have all been an extended part of my family simply by consuming my content and supporting it, and I will remain grateful for every bit of support you gave me over the past couple of years.

I will respond to any and all emails sent about this matter. Please bear with me if it takes a little time to respond though, as I anticipate I’ll be talking to a number of people over the next several days. You can email me at RealmPodcast@gmail.com.

Thank you.

Thank you for listening, for reading, and hopefully, for understanding that I am not, nor do I ever EVER wish to be a danger to any person or organization I have associated with.

Thank you for being a part of my life, and thank you for allowing me to be a part of yours.

That’s kinda bullshit man. Is there a way to go back and wipe off that no contest charge and get away with a clean slate? Or is it a once an SO always an SO deal?

Appreciate and respect the transparency. It wasn’t something you had to do.

Either way, you’ve helped many podcasts out there find some visibility and traffic. Don’t underestimate the positive impact and contributions you’ve already made to this community. No one can take that away from you.

I give you all the credit in the world. I can’t imagine the strength it took to put that information out their. Their isn’t a person in the world without some dirty laundry hanging in their closet and some regret in their past. It is certainly no breach of trust to not want to lead with painful personal history that has nothing to do with your shows content. I wish you good luck and the fortitude you will need in the days to come.

You are a man of honesty and one whom I, and I KNOW all of Team Turwinkle, will continue to stand behind! I have met quite a few wonderful folks during my journey through Azeroth as Turwinkle, not only on my Youtube channel, but on my podcast as well. I can say, without a SHADOW OF A DOUBT sir, that you are one of the kindest, most giving person, I have had the awesome pleasure to meet.
We all have things that haunt us. Things that are our burdens. “Let those without sin cast a stone.”
Just know, I am in your corner!
Your friend,
`Turwinkle

Many many props to you for coming clean with all of this, even though it really didn’t need to be shared. It’s very admirable. I guess I am rather old school in my beliefs that people can have an online persona and it should be kept separate from their real life. Isn’t that why we play rpgs in the first place? To have that separation? You do so much for other people outside of the game, it is amazing. You never had to go and spend your free time doing what you have done and you should be judged solely on that. You’re amazing and you’ve done great things for many people in the WoW community. I wouldn’t even know any other podcasts even existed (aside from the instance) if it wasn’t for you, and people should acknowledge you for that. The rest of it is just B.S. that should of never been brought to the for front of this fantasy world.
“Dove”

Rho, I only know you and can judge your character in the context of my own experience and that of the people I care about and love. What I know is that they have the utmost respect for you and your transparency of this situation also speaks to that same character and integrity. Your privacy belongs to you and that someone chose to put on a fake name to portray a portion of your story is extremely sad and disingenuous to me. We are on the fucking internet, separated by computers and you are not babysitting everyones children here. I have to wonder at what the real motivation of this person was and marvel at their lack of integrity in not being upfront with who they are. I look at our community and see a lot of self importance at times, much flogging of personal agendas but I notice lately that there can be a great lack of compassion and willing to invest in true understanding of one another. I hope this is a moment where people will stop and think about where their values and beliefs lie personally, before following each other like lemmings and casting you aside. That you respect that decision, whichever way it falls again speaks to the caliber of person you are.

I recall a time when a girl I knew accused the school janitor of touching her and as someone who was the victim of sexual abuse, I went to bat for her, got a detective involved who was a friend of the family even, staked my own reputation on believing her – only for it to come out in court that she had lied. Why? She was upset with him for chastising her for something she did wrong. I was 12 and I learned a hard lesson then; people will lie in the most hideous ways for their personal advantage. There have been similar situations in my own community over the years where teachers have been vilified, their careers and reputations dragged through the mud, only to have it come out that the student had an axe to grind. All sides of a moral dilemma or story must be considered.

I take you at your word and I’m sorry this happened to you. It’s worth your reputation to fight with everything you have and I hope you might find a way to get this situation resolved legally; one mistake leading to further mistakes seems like an unfair slight of fortune. While you and I have never had a close Twittership, I don’t believe I would feel cheated that this was not something you are open about if we had. Maybe if you were in my circle of closest friends it would be shocking and I would have to work through my feelings on it and make a decision, but personally I believe we don’t need to let everyone on the internet in that far, nor should we – it’s extremely unhealthy behaviour. Honestly, how do you tactfully bring such a thing up in normal conversation? Impossible unless it is someone you know well in the context that you would chat about things that personal.

Everything happens for a reason and the universe works in mysterious ways. There may be a silver lining to this experience, even if it is the simple fact that now you can enjoy the surety that your ongoing friendships are based on the real, fully disclosed you. Transparency is freedom, you’ll see. All the best and I will shake your hand at BlizzCon if you are there sir. Xo

I understand that in today’s world that registered sex offenders are often people who end up pleading out when innocent due to the charges brought against them, because that’s how prosecutors work by bringing a lifetimes charges for something hoping to force a plea deal, in exchange for lesser chargers or people who have done something relatively harmless but because of poor laws are forced to forever be on a list.

Even if something had happened, I’m also a believe that people who have served whatever sentence or are abiding by their parole or as in your case are registering as required have paid their due and have to be given a chance to show they are doing the right thing.

I also believe that someone who doesn’t have the guts to try and out you while hiding themselves shows they are both classes and cowardly. If someone believes that something should be said, then have enough internal fortitude to stand up give a face to the accusations.

I’m sorry that your privacy hasn’t been respected, and while each person has the right to judge for themselves and decide for themselves I for one until proven otherwise will assume you’re like the rest of us trying to live your life and not harming anyone else along the way.

Since James and I set up our website you were there from the very start to welcome us to the WoW community and encourage us to start podcasting for the first time. Like other podcasts out there you have helped us and dedicated time to spreading the word about WoW to our wider community with no complaints about whether you got any recognition or a simple ‘thank you’. I believe that you are a genuinely great guy who is honest, brave, objective, intelligent and wants to help others with no thought of ‘personal gain’. This post proves to me that you are that man, but unfortunately there are people in this world that take advantage of people with a good nature like yours, but you mustn’t let a situation like this define you! Please don’t stop what you are doing, as you are a leader in our WoW society and it wouldn’t be the same without the person we know as ‘Rho’.

This alias Miranda Moore most likely thought she was crusading for this and that without actually looking into the matter whatsoever; there’s so much BS out there anymore, not just what she tried to do, but so many other stories.

As for being a registered SO, well, I really wish they would come up with different terms for different charges. You’re right, SO has a huge stigma attached to it and people always jump to conclusions on their own just by hearing it. It’s such BS considering the stupidest things; here’s a story for you…

Just this past year at Burning Man there was a new-ish cop there in charge of various things, he caught someone who was fairly intoxicated urinating in public. Just that right there, urinating in public, the cop was going to charge this man with public indecency…if that had happened that man would then have had to become a registered sex offender, for public indecency, from urination in public while drunk. Thankfully the cop was convinced not to press that issue and let the man go, but still, let that sink in for a moment.

Again, I’m sorry for what has happened to you regarding your anonymity and privacy being violated by this Miranda Moore person…judge lest ye be judged, that’s what they say right? I wish her entire life were now made public and let open for public opinion to judge.

Rho I know you are not the type of person who seeks anything such as revenge or just-do’s or people getting what they deserve or anything like that. You accept people will be people and just continue moving on; I’d say that’s a huge showing of moral fiber and I respect that…combine that with the strength it took to share everything that you did, you are certainly someone that I’d certainly want to be friends with.

It is my hope that you are able to continue being yourself in this community as a whole; your gaming persona, your podcasting, blogging, everything. I’m sure there are still people who will jump to the wrong conclusion because for whatever reason when people hear anything bad about someone, they automatically want to believe it.

As with some of the others posting here, I don’t know you, although I have read some of your posts on Twitter.

I want to echo the sentiments of other recent comments here (such as ellellesays). I can see this being an incredibly hard and unfair situation, which it may seem impossible to escape, and through no fault of your own. You’ve done an incredibly brave thing by doing this, and if I were ever in such a position I can imagine taking a similar course of action myself; I agree with the path of speaking up and putting this information out there yourself, on your terms, and getting the chance to tell the true story.

I sympathise regarding the possibility of losing friendships, or similar. Some people tend to judge prematurely, or simply choose to exercise strong prejudice on subjects that they have either little knowledge of, or inflaming personal experience of. And of course some people are just dicks 😉 but we often can’t know these things until something major happens.

One ray of sunlight from such an eventuality is that you get to see how much some of your acquaintances trust, believe in, and respect you, how highly they regard you, and that they themselves are people that you in turn can trust. Also hopefully the process of ‘coming out’ with this may bring a kind of relief for you, from the tension of fearing someone else will ‘expose’ this detail of your past. That’s never a good thing to be carrying around with you, all that fear and tension.

I know you only from your podcasts. The person I have come to know is an upstanding, relentlessly positive, and supportive member of the WOW community. I hope we, the WOW community, are as effective at supporting you during such a trying time.

If a person has never found themselves in a difficult situation or a target of someone else’s animosity they haven’t lived very long. You show a compassionate understanding of your accuser’s motivation even while experiencing the repercussions for the rest of your life.

Be strong. You are cared for. I hope you stay on the air instead of letting the bastards win.

Rho, like I’ve said a lot the last few hours, I’m with you. You are the kindest guy I’ve ever met and honestly, I demand you give me a huge hug at Blizzcon. I’ve got your back buddy. Let’s take on the haters together. *hugs* <3

There are holes in story! If I was accused I would be yelling and screaming its not true! No lawyer would say if you didn’t do anything plead no contest! Bullshit brain!But when go for no contest, you did something ! I hope you get banned from blizzard!

My heart broke hearing your story. The prison and legal system in America is filled with the indigent poor whose overworked public defenders essentially force them to plea out because of prosecutors who will bring he hammer down on them if they dare take the case to trial, mostly because those prosecutors one day want to be DA’s or judges. None of us were there when this happened, and everything you do in the community and your general demeanor tells me that you are a upstanding person, genuine person. I could hear the struggle in your voice as you informed all of us about this and risked losing the online persona that you take so much solace and pride in (and now I feel I understand better why you put so much work into what you do in regards to the community). What you did was very, very brave. I hope and pray everyone stands with you.

Hey Rho,
I don’t know you very well other than what you do for the community (and our occasional twitter banter) and I appreciate the effort it took for you to write this post and be so open about your past with essentially a very fickle online world.

not a long time listener…but i have only been listening for a few months. cause of you i started to listen to other wow podcasts. havnt been playing wow for almost a year, but i am planning to go back soon again because of you and other podcasters. for that i thank you. for real life situation, you have been dealt a bad hand. this person that started this mess for what ever reason will not change how i feel about you and the podcast. hope you do not go g quietly in the stormy night. stand strong and brave this storm. for your true friends and admirers while stand by you.

Hi Rho/Brian,
Just listened to your story via your podcast feed and I’ll admit this revelation hit me for six, completely out of left field and at first I was shocked but I kept an open mind and listened to your whole story.

While I’m thousands of miles away from you and have never met you, I have listened to you on many podcasts and have come to “know” you as an open and honest man and on times when you have attempted to mislead your listeners you become very scripted and it isn’t hard to see through you. The tone of this broadcast is very different to your normal style and that is enough for me to believe your story 100%.

What you have been forced into doing took a lot of bravery and I can totally understand your reasons for not sharing the story before now, it was an irrelevancy to what you were doing and if you are innocent (and there is no reason for me to disbelieve your story) you’re the victim of the crime that was committed that day in SoCal.

I’m hoping that you won’t be evicted from the WoW community as you’ve assisted every podcast in boosting their listenership and I’ll continue to be a listener of Realm Maintenance for as long as you’re pushing out episodes.

I have to admit from past experience I’m more reserved and on-the-fence on this topic than some others that have replied here.

I had a situation a few years ago where another family member had brought someone around my kids that gave me a bad feeling. I did some checking and found in fact he was a registered sex offender, and confronted him on it. His response was that it was a simple misunderstanding and that it was from his past where he was 18 and dating a 17 year-old girl, who’s parents disapproved, and got him charged as a sex offender. The problem was, that after I did some more research into him I found out that it wasn’t the truth at all and in fact he had raped a 12 year old using a knife – a TOTALLY different deal. It goes back to how in prison everyone claims to be innocent, so it’s often hard to tell the people telling the truth from the shady people just claiming to be wrongly accused. My hope and gut feeling is that you are telling the truth, but it’s just that there are 2 sides to every story. So I appreciate the honesty and coming forward unlike the person in my situation did, but for the people that do those crimes in actuality, they are so horrible that we do have to be careful to protect against it.

I am writing this to you today for one purpose and one purpose alone. To stand and applaud for you.

You could have very easily run and shut the sites down and try to lock yourself away from your past. I look at you and see you bowing your head, wondering how you will continue. Rho, I want you to stop bowing that head, you did nothing wrong, you attempted to help a person, and when you could no longer help they wanted to make you pay. You also did the most common thing when moving to another state, you did not look to see what changes to the law there would be that you would have to deal with.

With this information out, I will tell you one thing. Any person who dares to throw a stone, a word, a stick or attempt to make you uncomfortable in any way in regards to this, will find themselves looked at as if they are lower than whale feces, and that is on the bottom of the ocean.

Rho, Mr. Black, Mr. Schwarts, continue, do not let the callous actions of another stop you from doing what you love, what this community needs. Pick up your microphone, turn on your recorder, and tell us what is happening. To not hear you every week, to not be able to know what is happening with my podcasts or in the games in one place. I would be lost.

I let you know this now sir. If you need a shoulder to help you stand, I am there. IF you need an ear to hear you vent and release some of the stress and pain, I am there. IF you need a shovel and tarp and ax, well I can’t say I would be there cause then the cops would come talk to me first, but I do know a few people who know how to work excavation machinery. (that last part is meant as a joke, for those guys in the NSA, CIA, FBI and what other government agencies decide to read this.)

Lastly I say this. Be you, be Brian/Rho, be the person that does what you do best and be the best at it. After doing that, you cannot say you could do any better, and any who dare criticize you, they do not know you. Be You.